home

noun

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\ ˈhōm

plural homes

Definition of home

(Entry 1 of 4)

1a : one's place of residence : domicile has been away from home for two weeks a place to call home

b : house several homes for sale in the area

2 : the social unit formed by a family living together trying to make a good home for their children comes from a loving home

3a : a familiar or usual setting : congenial environment also : the focus of one's domestic attention home is where the heart is

b : habitat the home of the kangaroo The island is home to many species of birds.

4a : a place of origin salmon returning to their home to spawn also : one's own country having troubles at home and abroad

b : headquarters sense 2 home of the dance company

5 : an establishment providing residence and care for people with special needs homes for the elderly

6 : the objective in various games especially : home plate

at home

1 : relaxed and comfortable : at ease felt completely at home on the stage

2 : in harmony with the surroundings

3 : on familiar ground : knowledgeable teachers at home in their subject fields

home

adverb

Definition of home (Entry 2 of 4)

1 : to or at one's place of residence or home (see home entry 1 sense 1a) told the dog to go home stayed home all day

2a : to a final, closed, or ultimate position drive a nail home

b : to or at an ultimate objective (such as a goal or finish line) fired the puck home

3 : to a vital sensitive core the truth struck home

home free

: out of jeopardy : in a comfortable position with respect to some objective

home

adjective

Definition of home (Entry 3 of 4)

1 : of, relating to, or being a place of residence, place of origin, or base of operations the company's home office

2 : prepared, done, or designed for use in a home (see home entry 1) home remedies home cooking a home entertainment system

3 : operating or occurring in an area that is a headquarters or base of operations the home team home games

home

verb

homed; homing

Definition of home (Entry 4 of 4)

intransitive verb

1 : to go or return to one's place of residence or origin : to go or return home (see home entry 1) let us home

2 of an animal : to return accurately to one's native area of place of birth or origin from a distance : to return home The salmon will home to spawn.

3 : to move to or toward an objective by following a signal or landmark —usually used with on or in missiles homing in on a targetmariners … sought the dark spires of Oakland's redwoods to home on— J. W. Noble

4 : to proceed or direct attention toward an objective science is homing in on the mysterious human process— Sam Glucksberg

transitive verb

: to send to or provide with a home hidden pools and much wider creeks each of which homed its cranes— I. L. Idriess

Synonyms More Example Sentences Phrases Containing home Learn More About home

Examples of home in a Sentence

Noun Right now his home is a small apartment. People are concerned about protecting their homes. They have a second home on the lake. There's no place like home. I must have left my notes at home. She made a good home for her husband and children. The islands are home to many species of birds. Can you find homes for these files in your office? Adverb She called home to say she would be late for dinner. He's sending money home from a job overseas. She is on her way home. It's great to be back home. I can't wait to come home. He used a hammer to drive the nail home. Adjective She has a happy home life. Please give us your home phone number. What is your home address? The team opens its home season in just two weeks. See More

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun To make to-do-lists and color code our way into equity in the home, rather than demand the long-overdue compensation that would make our lives truly equitable. — Reshma Saujani, ELLE, 13 May 2022 The home had also been dogged by systemic issues, such as short staffing and lack of access to personal protective equipment, for years, CNN has previously reported. — Liam Reilly, Annie Cohen And Christina Maxouris, CNN, 13 May 2022 With the help of a neighbor, relatives loaded their remains into a minivan on March 10, and took them to the family home, where they were buried in a shallow grave in the corner of the yard, according to Ms. Strilets and Mr. Provornov. — Isabel Coles, WSJ, 13 May 2022 DePietro was on the home’s lawn, also wounded, police said. — Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel, 13 May 2022 Reilly and her partner, Per Ostman, hired Samuel Kachmar to not only make the home more livable, but to inject more of their personalities. — Marni Elyse Katz, BostonGlobe.com, 12 May 2022 The unoccupied home was the second to collapse this week—and the third to topple this year—in Rodanthe, North Carolina, at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 May 2022 Typically one to three people live in each temporary home. — oregonlive, 12 May 2022 Baez shares the lead with Joe Lampe in home runs with 10. — Jenna Ortiz, The Arizona Republic, 12 May 2022 Recent Examples on the Web: Adverb After attending the Met Gala in New York and the Formula 1 World Championship in Miami, Bad Bunny went home to continue promoting his new album Un Verano Sin Ti. — Jessica Roiz, Billboard, 12 May 2022 Stood in line, got my pass, then went back home at 7:30 a.m. — Nicholas Ballasy, PEOPLE.com, 11 May 2022 The child went home with Cox and his wife, who by agreement with the birth mother and adoption agency, were serving as pre-adoptive foster parents while the legal adoption process played out. — Bruce Vielmetti, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 11 May 2022 Here's what went down, including which two powerhouse vocalists went home at the end of the night. — Charles Trepany, USA TODAY, 9 May 2022 Gedansky also said that cellphone data showed that both Dabates were home for about 30 minutes that morning, and that Dabate didn’t leave the house besides bringing their son’s to the school bus. — Taylor Hartz, Hartford Courant, 5 May 2022 Jones went home to her children; years later, her civil suit was settled for an undisclosed amount. — Melissa Gira Grant, The New Republic, 5 May 2022 Younger players went home to quality programs to continue their development. — Stephen Means, cleveland, 4 May 2022 Her sister said the children were not home at the time. — Carol Robinson | Crobinson@al.com, al, 2 May 2022 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective More than 30 San Antonio fire units were in a West Side neighborhood after a multi-home fire broke out Friday morning. — Taylor Pettaway, San Antonio Express-News, 18 Feb. 2022 Current Sea Cliff neighbors include Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer (who owns a multi-home compound) and San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer. — Howard Walker, Robb Report, 21 Sep. 2021 Virtual care is likely here to stay: Medicare began covering remote appointment benefits in 2019, but limited them to rural areas and non-home settings. — oregonlive, 12 Oct. 2020 The Astros were scheduled to play two home exhibition games and six regular season games at Minute Maid Park prior to April 9 — the earliest date on which the schedule will resume. — Chandler Rome, Houston Chronicle, 14 Mar. 2020 The Hawks will play two home exhibition games at Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion (Oct. 9 and Oct. 12) as Philips Arena undergoes renovation. — Michael Cunningham, ajc, 1 Oct. 2017 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb Karen Landers, district medical officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health, told STAT on Thursday that not all of the cases had a high enough viral load to be able to conduct tests to home in on the type of adenovirus. — Helen Branswell, STAT, 24 Apr. 2022 For a decade, rock-bottom mortgage rates helped home buyers steadily bid up the cost of housing. — Jack Flemming, Los Angeles Times, 23 Apr. 2022 For a decade, rock bottom mortgage rates helped home buyers steadily bid up the cost of housing. — Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 2022 Evans explores the impact that the Food Timeline had on its users, from podcast hosts to home cooks. — Hallel Yadin, Longreads, 24 Mar. 2022 How could home prices continue to tick up in the face of soaring mortgage rates? — Fortune, 28 Mar. 2022 Watchdogs around the world have started to home in on the huge power that firms such as Google and Meta’s Facebook wield over ad markets -- striking at the heart of the tech giants’ money making machines. — Stephanie Bodoni, Bloomberg.com, 11 Mar. 2022 Subtitled Sheryl & Mark, the second season will home in on the relationship between Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the company's longtime COO, Sheryl Sandberg. — Tyler Aquilina, EW.com, 15 Feb. 2022 The focus of any future investigation will home in on her personal team - coaches, doctors, nutritionists, etc. — oregonlive, 14 Feb. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'home.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of home

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Adverb

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adjective

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1802, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

History and Etymology for home

Noun

Middle English hom, hoome "dwelling, building, one's native town or land," going back to Old English hām "landed property, estate, dwelling, house, inhabited place, native land," going back to Germanic *haima- "dwelling" (whence also Old Saxon & Old Frisian hēm "home, dwelling," Middle Dutch heem, heim "dwelling," Old High German heima "dwelling, homeland," Old Norse heimr "abode, land, this world," Gothic haims "village, countryside, [in compounds] home"), of uncertain origin

Note: A widely accepted etymology sees Germanic *haima- as going back to Indo-European *ḱoi-mo, an o-grade derivative, with a suffix *-mo-, of the verbal base *ḱei- "lie, be at rest." Also from *ḱoi-mo- would be an assumed Greek *koímē or *koîmos "bed," the source of the denominal derivative koimáō, koimân "to put to bed, lay to rest" (see cemetery); further associated are Lithuanian šeimà "family, household members (including servants)," Latvian sàime, Russian Church Slavic sěmĭ "person," sěmija, translating Greek andrápoda "prisoners of war sold as slaves," sěminŭ "slave, household member," Russian sem'já "family," Ukrainian sim'já. (Lithuanian kiẽmas "farmstead, village" and káimas "village" are perhaps related, via a form with a centum outcome of ḱ, or as a loanword from Germanic.) According to an alternative hypothesis, Germanic *haima- goes back to Indo-European *tḱoi̯-mo-, a derivative with *-mo- from Indo-European *tḱei̯- "dwell, inhabit" (in a more traditional representation *ḱþei̯-; see amphictyony). Directly comparable would be Sanskrit kṣémaḥ "habitable," kṣémaḥ or -am (noun) "calm, quiet, safety," which within Sanskrit are direct derivatives from kṣéti "(s/he) dwells." The Baltic and Slavic forms cited above would then be attributable to this form.

Adverb

Middle English hom, going back to Old English hām, probably from accusative of hām "dwelling, home entry 1" (with parallel forms in other Germanic languages)

Adjective

from attributive use of home entry 1

Verb

derivative of home entry 1

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